Becky Kate Shepherd

I am a photographer predominately using Camcorders to record video footage from which I manually extract stills using a computer. I prefer this way of working as it allows for wonderful “mistakes” and unlike standard photographic practice aiming to capture one moment, the method of digitally extracting stills provides the possibility of a few moments being captured within one frame (the moment before scarring the moment after). The method is key to this…

I am a photographer predominately using Camcorders to record video footage from which I manually extract stills using a computer. I prefer this way of working as it allows for wonderful “mistakes” and unlike standard photographic practice aiming to capture one moment, the method of digitally extracting stills provides the possibility of a few moments being captured within one frame (the moment before scarring the moment after). The method is key to this works success, appropriating surveillance methods using video, which is much more discreet than taking photographs, then manually selecting “evidence” (investing time into selecting poignant stills).

This method works as a platform to render the digital and technologically advanced world we live in. My most recent work stems from my interest in humans and their interaction with technology, I have most recently focused on surveillance and to what extent it affects our behaviour.

“Our society is not one of spectacle, but one of surveillance; under the surface of images, one invests bodies in depth” Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle.

We subconsciously are aware that we are under surveillance in Cities and densely populated areas, but in more quiet places for instance a beach or even your own home do we assume the same? And if the answer is no, why?
I focused primarily on places where people do not assume surveillance is in operation and appropriated my own form of surveillance, using the method described to mimick surveillance in more populated areas. I should stress that this work was not created as propaganda for or against surveillance, I quite simply find it interesting that we walk around assuming in certain areas we are being “watched” and in others we do not expect or find it appropriate.